I have not yet been able to find an independent review online. Outdoor Connection themselves hardly offer any info on it on their website!

The things that are winning me over are:- easy set-up. Choice claims 10 mins, but I am quite sure it would take me longer than that. They claim it only took them 25 minutes to set up the Timbertop Geo Coleman and it still took me 30 mins to pitch my simpler Coleman after years of doing it!- big windows and doors - good for ventilation as we do mainly summer camping- good size for 2 people and a dog - and I actuallly quite like the idea of a one room tent after having owned one with 2 rooms. Less fiddling with zippers and stepping through doors!- and the biggest attraction for me: the awesome awning. I would get both side panels so I can extend the awning and would not need to set up a tarp on shorter trips. That is a big time saver. Also, it is so rare to see an awning with apparently adequate run-off provisions! Most awnings I've used and seen get water pooling in them until they fall down.

The only thing I think I don't like about it is the lack of skylights. I love my skylights in my Black Wolf Mojave. But you can't have everything. The perfect tent for me has not yet been designed. -

I haven't been camping for yonks. We went to Belgium in April and after I got back I just struggled with the daily routines and got so lazy... My camping gear is all over the place and I just can't seem to be able to motivate myself to pack the car for a weekend away.

So I must do something about it and buying new gear is always a good motivator of course!

I'm not sure about the tent yet. I'm worried it would be too small. 280 x 270. Which is fine for sleeping and stuff, but I'm not convinced yet that we can do without the vestibule space. It's been so long that we've been camping that I cannot remember what we normally do with the decent sized vestibule of our BW Mojave!

It's a very embarassing story. Normally, if there is one thing that I take very good care of, it's my tent. But I stuffed up big time with this one.

One hot night last summer, I decided it was way too hot in the house to sleep, so set up the tent in the backyard. But only the inner tent, so we could get the breeze through but be protected from the mozzies. At 2am the rain woke me up. I had to wake up my daughter and flee inside with her. The downpour filled up the tent with a few inches of water - in both the main room and the vestibule. I couldn't get the water out the next day. I just left it there for a few days, hoping it would dry out. It rained more... I finally took it down, but still couldn't get all of the water out. Anywho... to make a long story short: it now smells moudly and the poles have rust on them! I'm pretty sure it is fixable with some TLC. But I don't really feel motivated.

There is something about this tent that I have never really liked. Can't really put my finger on it but I never "bonded" with it. Unlike my Coleman tent that I still have some sentimental attachment to. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone...

My Coleman tent is more practical. Easier to set up, holds up better in rain and wind, eaiser to clean...

Thanks XB. But the first thing I think when I look at that tent is "Way too many poles for a medium-sized tent"! Makes it a nice shape and sturdy, but time-consuming to set up.

And that awning is really important to me. That's just based on my experience with camping. I want to feel absolutely sure that my tent and my gear will keep dry. That includes being able to leave the front door open when it rains and not get puddles inside, which the Outdoor Connection tent will do. And it will keep our chairs and tables and other stuff (relatively) dry at the same time. And most importantly, it won't fall down as easily as most awnings, so I can trust it to do its job.

Sometimes it is really the little things that can make a big difference.

I decided that I don't have enough money to buy a new tent anyway. So I'm just dreaming about it now.

Ideally, I'd like to buy both the Weekender and the Heron! But if I have to choose, which of course I do, I should probably go for the smaller one after all as I really do more weekend trips than longer trips.

Hi I'm Mandy, looking for a weekend tent for 2 adults and 2 small children, something you can stand up in! The Dimantina Escape Duo looks great what do other people think, there is also a 2 room 4 person tent at Kathmandu reduced from $800's to $490 for members. We are in Victoria, so there is often rain! and there is no where to go but bed sometimes!Mandy